Bishop Chaput's response to my note to him about the article in the Washington Post on Saturday. CMHenry Archbishop Chaput wrote: Subject: CHAPUT FIGHTS LEGISLATION Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 09:52:06 -0600 From: "Archbishop Chaput" To: Dear Ms. Henry, I am surprised that you feel free to make such sweeping judgments after reading an article in the newspaper. Is this your common practice? Nothing is being covered up. Protecting children and the assets of the lay faithful are not incompatible issues. Treating all parties fairly is a common goal of legislation in the United States. Caring for victims of sexual abuse is absolutely essential. So is fairness and protecting the innocent lay people of the Church today. I hope you will take time to read the interview linked here: click here Thank you for making me aware of your opinion. +cjc __________________________________________ From: CatherineMary Henry [mailto:catherinemaryhenry@yahoo.com] Sent: Sat 4/1/2006 12:03 PM Subject: CHAPUT FIGHTS LEGISLATION Re: Legislation Efforts Against Abuse Dear Bishop Chaput, Once again our Catholic Church is held up to ridicule by the actions taken by another of our bishops, in this case it is you, scooping up your marbles and refusing to play because you were caught doing something wrong. Instead of admitting your wrongdoing, you try to squirm out of any kind of punishment by saying someone else was doing the same thing and they are not being punished as severely as I am. Sour grapes! Until you, our bishops, rise above your ingrained mentality of clericalism and start doing the right thing for the right reason, the church will continue to be mired in the mud of the sexual abuse problems you have created. I am not talking of the initial sins, wrongs, evils and crimes of the individual sexually abusive priests, but of the cover-ups that you and other bishops have being involved in. For God's sake and for the love of the children and the young adults harmed, get your collective acts together. Catherine Mary Henry

by CatherineMaryHenry (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 10:13:48 AM

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Dear Archbishop Chaput, I must add my voice to that of my dear friend, Sister M. Immaculata Dunn. She has told it like it is and has challenged you to do what you should have been doing from the beginning - own up to you own abuse and misuse of power. There should be excommunications of these sexually abusive priests. Your words are disingenuous to say the least. Catherine Mary Henry ____________________________________ Dear Bishops, I think Archbishop Chaput, along with many of you, his fellow bishops, Mark Chopko and Msgr. Maniscalco, from the USCCB staff, all need to change your medication! Now, instead of removing, defrocking and excommunicating these abusive priests with all possible haste, you are trying to harass victim-survivors of sexual abuse into settling without the assistance of lawyers? Unreal, unethical, unchristian and unbelievable. I would like to know what it is costing American Catholics to LOBBY AGAINST the necessary updating and changes in the states' laws regarding the sexual abuse of minors? What is it costing us to have the STATES' CATHOLIC CONFERENCES OPPOSING OPENING A LEGAL WINDOW OF A YEAR TO OBTAIN JUSTICE FOR SURVIVORS? The only conspiracy around at the moment is the conspiring that is going on among you, our catholic bishops in the continuing protection of credibly accused abusive priests. Who is paying their lawyers' fees? The drafting of new legislation is the only way to obtain justice and redress of grievances, Archbishop Chaput. Suddenly, you and Mark Chopko are concerned that survivors are paying their own lawyers too much? I think the catholic community would be much better served if you, Archbishop Chaput along with the rest of the bishops would handle the financial mess you have made which is secondary only to the moral mess that you have created. Your behavior, especially in light of the news article below, is both ludicrous and ridiculous. PLEASE, get you act together! Sincerely, Sister M. Immaculata Dunn maryidunn@yahoo.com ________________________________________________ Church Takes Aim at Abuse Victims' Lawyers By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Monday, May 8, 2006 (05-0 15:29 PDT (AP) -- As the cost of clergy sex abuse surpasses $1.5 billion, some U.S. Roman Catholic leaders are taking an aggressive, public stand against attorneys who represent victims. The new development in the long-running clergy abuse crisis was partly triggered by proposals in several statehouses this year that would create a brief period when molestation claims could be filed — even if the time limits for lawsuits had passed. Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput portrayed the legislation introduced in Colorado as part of a conspiracy between advocacy groups and attorneys to enrich lawyers at the church's expense. "Victims' groups may act as stimulants to sympathetic news media and state lawmakers," Chaput wrote in the May edition of the journal First Things. "Plaintiffs' attorneys may then offer help in drafting new legislation from which they themselves hope to benefit." Mark Chopko, general counsel to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has outraged plaintiffs' lawyers and advocates by encouraging victims to seek settlements without an attorney. Victims would then avoid paying attorney fees, which generally run between 25 percent and 40 percent of each payout. "The group that stands to gain the most from this is the plaintiffs' bar," Chopko said. Lawyers for victims say Chaput's comments are another attempt by the church to avoid responsibility for predatory clerics. And they contend it's irresponsible for Catholic officials to suggest that people deal directly with dioceses which for decades ignored or covered up abuse. "If the defendants, in this case the bishops, did the right thing by the people they had harmed, then there'd be no need for people to hire lawyers," said Larry Drivon, a California attorney who has hundreds of abuse claims pending against dioceses in his state. Lawyers like Drivon have become the principal targets of complaints from church leaders, who are trying to withstand the bruising financial blow of the long-running crisis. Three dioceses have sought bankruptcy protection, others have cut budgets and sold property to fund multimillion-dollar settlements — and the claims keep pouring in. Dioceses received 783 new credible allegations last year, according to the bishops' conference, after paying out $1.5 billion in abuse-related costs since 1950. Drivon and Jeff Anderson, a Minnesota attorney who handles abuse cases nationwide, helped draft a California bill that won unanimous approval abolishing the state's time limits on civil sex abuse lawsuits for one year. That measure prompted hundreds of new claims, while serving as a model for legislation in Ohio, Colorado, Maryland, Delaware and elsewhere. The idea has so far failed to win approval outside of California. In Colorado this year, Catholic lobbyists seized on similarities between the California law and one proposed in their legislature to portray the proposal as the work of greedy lawyers. The public pressure grew so great that the bill's sponsor, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, released hundreds of pages of witness testimony, e-mails and other communication about her involvement with the legislation to prove that she had no contact with Anderson. Anderson said he had no role in proposing the measure, which appears to be dead this session. Less publicly, church leaders have complained that the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, the most vocal of the victims' groups, takes donations from lawyers, including Anderson and Drivon, who handle abuse cases. David Clohessy, the network's national director, said donations from plaintiffs' lawyers make up about 18 percent of the group's annual budget, which ranges between $500,000 and $600,000 and supports four employees. He said it was the "height of deception" for Catholic officials to depict the network as a pawn of attorneys. He argued that changing time limits on lawsuits has, in many cases, been the only way victims could force the church to open files on guilty priests. The Constitution bars applying criminal laws retroactively, and abused children usually take decades to come forward. "We're a tiny, loosely knit band of deeply hurting victims, trying desperately to eke something positive out of our own horror while getting kicked in the teeth every day by hundreds of paid professional Catholic public relations staff and defense lawyers," Clohessy said. Steven Lubet, a professor at Northwestern University Law School who specializes in legal ethics, said there is nothing unethical about lawyers donating to victims groups as long as there is no quid pro quo. He also sees no problem with lawyers drafting abuse-related bills. "That's democracy. People who have interests in the way the law is structured are going to try to persuade legislators to change the law that way," Lubet said, noting that the Catholic Church has its own lobbyists in statehouses around the country. Still, plaintiffs' lawyers themselves are divided over the issue. Steve Rubino of New Jersey, who has been handling abuse cases for years, believes lobbying by attorneys creates an easy target for church leaders and undermines victims' work. Attorney Carmen Durso, of Boston, disagrees. After years of working with victims, he says he feels obliged to be a donor and an advocate. "Money moves people. Money moves institutions," he said. "If the church and other institutions are not at risk to do something about these people they won't do it."

by CatherineMaryHenry (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 3 comments) on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 10:16:37 AM

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As a Catholic mother in OC, California, "Church Takes Aim at Abuse Victims Lawyers" further evidences the why's and how's that allowed the Catholic Church to employ sexual predators, year after year, without taking moral and/or financial accountability for destroying the innocence of precious children and their families. It is called "deep-pocketed financial, legal and PR budgets" -- nothing else. Thanks to the courage of clergy abuse survivors, their families, selected members of the media and attorneys representing victims, the truth is now out -- the clergy sex abuse scandals are no longer one or two isolated incidents -- it is a serious and destructive dirty scandal, with many victims still suffering in shame and silence, without recourse thanks to the deep pockets of the Catholic Church. The Church is now playing their last card, blame the attorneys representing those who had their childhood innocence destroyed forever -- BLAME THE MESSENGER. California's history evidences the urgency of forcing large and powerful religious institutions to come clean and accountable, without further delay or legal abuses. Legislators in California shared a common vision and placed the return of due process and the protections of California's precious children at the highest priority. Thank God someone has the courage to do the right thing in this country. As an American, it is a disgrace to our country's freedoms to watch other state legislators "cave-in" to the political and religious powers of the Catholic hierarchy by defeating legislation that would tell the truth through the civil court system. Why are elected officials so afraid of returning due process to those who have been denied protections from sexual predators? When will elected government leaders nationwide place the protections of children and justice for survivors of past sex abuse crimes before their own political and religious self-serving agendas? Clergy sex abuse is disgusting, dirty, illegal and still secret in many states. Without civil litigation, the crimes will transfer in secret files generation to generation. Freedom of religion never allowed for sex abuse crimes against precious children. We can only pray that elected government leaders do not place others at risk of sex abuse crimes while they are making attempts to stay politically connected during an important election year. Our children deserve to witness the clean-up and correction of the horrific sex abuse scandals that will determine the direction and integrity of our country's freedoms in the future. Debby Bodkin, Founder www.catholics4justice.com

by Debby Bodkin (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 18 diaries, 47 comments) on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 8:32:16 PM

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As a Catholic mother in OC, California, "Church Takes Aim at Abuse Victims Lawyers" further evidences the why's and how's that allowed the Catholic Church to employ sexual predators, year after year, without taking moral and/or financial accountability for destroying the innocence of precious children and their families. It is called "deep-pocketed financial, legal and PR budgets" -- nothing else. Thanks to the courage of clergy abuse survivors, their families, selected members of the media and attorneys representing victims, the truth is now out -- the clergy sex abuse scandals are no longer one or two isolated incidents -- it is a serious and destructive dirty scandal, with many victims still suffering in shame and silence, without recourse thanks to the deep pockets of the Catholic Church. The Church is now playing their last card, blame the attorneys representing those who had their childhood innocence destroyed forever -- BLAME THE MESSENGER. California's history evidences the urgency of forcing large and powerful religious institutions to come clean and accountable, without further delay or legal abuses. Legislators in California shared a common vision and placed the return of due process and the protections of California's precious children at the highest priority. Thank God someone has the courage to do the right thing in this country. As an American, it is a disgrace to our country's freedoms to watch other state legislators "cave-in" to the political and religious powers of the Catholic hierarchy by defeating legislation that would tell the truth through the civil court system. Why are elected officials so afraid of returning due process to those who have been denied protections from sexual predators? When will elected government leaders nationwide place the protections of children and justice for survivors of past sex abuse crimes before their own political and religious self-serving agendas? Clergy sex abuse is disgusting, dirty, illegal and still secret in many states. Without civil litigation, the crimes will transfer in secret files generation to generation. Freedom of religion never allowed for sex abuse crimes against precious children. We can only pray that elected government leaders do not place others at risk of sex abuse crimes while they are making attempts to stay politically connected during an important election year. Our children deserve to witness the clean-up and correction of the horrific sex abuse scandals that will determine the direction and integrity of our country's freedoms in the future. Debby Bodkin, Founder www.catholics4justice.com

by Debby Bodkin (47 articles, 0 quicklinks, 18 diaries, 47 comments) on Sunday, May 14, 2006 at 8:33:18 PM

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